Honor 10 lite review: Does the device mimic flagships at a lighter price tag?

In terms of front cam photography and design, this one takes a prominent position in the budget phone category for me.

Was 2018 the year of the notch? Most brands attempted to introduce devices that took as little space for frills on the head as possible. Honor, being one such brand, introduced quite some devices to further the very trend.

When I first sat with the Honor 8x, I thought I've found a great device that has me complaining about very few aspects. Now with the 10 lite device, I'm aiming to find out what new stuff, if any, the brand has brought to the table, and if the two devices have any similarities as pointed by reviewers around the world.

Here's a quick summary of how the phone fared for me:

First impressions

Right under the lid of the box lies the strikingly tall-looking device, the Honor 10 lite. I soon realised that the tallness is due to the brand now fitting a 6.21-inch display within a 5.2-inch body.

I've got the bright Sapphire blue variant with me; there's also a gradient Sky Blue and Midnight Black on offer.

Here's a few observations I made at first glance:

The back of the phone, though entirely plastic, imitates Honor's signature glass design. Contrary to what I thought when I first noticed this, the plastic gives the device a fairly premium feel, and is great at prevent fingerprints from staining the back.

The screen appears to be unusually tall making the phone appear somewhat sleeker than other device that have come out recently. This tells me it might be great for one-hand operation because the width is comfortable enough to ensure complete control over the body of the device.

The notch is the top of the top features that the device flaunted when I first set my eyes on it; it is just the right size to mean business i.e. house the front camera minus fancy frills.

The charging panel at the bottom makes it looks like the brand is finding hard to let go of the idea of micro USB-charging in a world that has already moved to Type-C cables.

In more than few places I felt that the 10 lite mimics qualities of the 8x at a price point of around Rs39k here in Pakistan. Let's find out if I stick by that statement till I get to a verdict.

Now that that is sorted, let's move to real details:

Key specs

OS: Android 9.0 (Pie)

UI: EMUI 9

Display screen size: 6.21 inch (over 90% screen to body ratio)

Cameras: 24MP AI selfie, 13+2MP rear

Chipset: Hisilicon Kirin 710 (12 nm)

Storage: 3GB RAM, 64GB internal storage/ROM

Battery...